A year of STG effort: toward a new ionospheric model for WACCM-X
The existing ion transport solver in WACCM-X has limited capability to represent transient ionospheric dynamics and is constrained by simplifications in the ion momentum equation, particularly in the collision-dominated E region. To address these limitations, this STG project has focused on the development of a new high-fidelity ionospheric solver capable of self-consistently describing plasma dynamics in a realistic Earth magnetic field.
Over its first year, the project has evolved from an initial focus on the ion momentum equation toward a broader formulation based on the conservation equations for the ionospheric plasma. This talk will review that evolution: the original project concept, the progress made during the first year, the scientific and numerical developments it has enabled, and the current path toward a new ionospheric model and its integration into WACCM-X. The talk will also discuss the main lessons learned from this first year of STG work and future plans for the development and integration of the model.
Dr. Jordi Vila-Pérez is a scientist in the High Altitude Observatory (HAO), specializing in the development of numerical methods to study the ionosphere and thermosphere. Before joining NSF NCAR, Dr. Vila-Pérez was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, where he worked on developing GPU-based high-fidelity methods and applying them to space weather modeling. Previously, he earned his PhD in Applied Mathematics from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, in Barcelona, in 2021, focusing on low and high-order hybridized discontinuous Galerkin methods for compressible flows.